Wednesday, 27 June 2012

I do love libraries, the only thing I hate about them is the fines you get from not returning the books in time. But I always think that the money goes for a good cause: they are able to buy more books.

Well, going to the library of my friend Sari, was far more expensive:-) As she has an enormous collection of miniature books, I was happy as can be when she said that I can borrow as many as I wanted. Luckily I was going home by foot, so there was a limit of a backpack.

But, as I was afraid, the end result was that I had to buy most of the books to my own library. The end result can be seen below. Yes, I admit that the two on the bottom of the pile are not miniature books, but while shopping on amazon....

There were a couple of dissappointments on the shopping spree though.
The Paris Interiors book is a smaller edition than the one I have been
borrowing from the city library (with fines, yes) and the printing is
not of the same quality. And if you look carefully to the photo, you
can see that I have ordered two copies of the same book....

But
the biggest dissappointment was ofcourse that even the French amazon
did not have all the books I wanted: Florence Labeyrie-Bejot's books
about French kitchens and libraries. What made it worse: they actually
had them, but the sellers did not ship to Finland.

Thursday, 14 June 2012

We had a miniature fair on Saturday at Lahti, and it was fun, as always. It was the sixth time, and I had a table there, as always. I remember the first one especially. I was very new to Finnish dolls' house community, so there were lot's of new people there, not too much was sold, but it was a beautiful day. And the weather was quite important thing, as the tables were outside on the garden of one Englishman.

And I was more than happy to meet this gentleman, Brian Stevens, on Saturday. Not only is he a nice guy, but we had a business to do. :-) And now we come to the long story...

I think it was the second or third Lahti fair, when I saw a beautiful shop at sale. Oh my, how beautiful it was and so cheap... It was quite big, and I was commuting by train, and I thought I would not have a place for it, so with regrets I decided to leave it there.

Photo by Brian Stevens, when the shop was an antiques shop.

However, two years ago, I told this story to my friend who said that she knew who had bought it, it was our friend. So next time I talked to her, I said how much I admired the thing and asked what she had done with it? Well, after all, she had not bought it!

So, next time I saw Brian, I found out that he still had it. Unfortunately he had re-used the box, but he still had the front. So we agreed that he will build me a new dolls' house behind the front. I think this was at Christmas fair in Helsinki one and half years ago.

So in spring, I draw the floor plan. And me being me, instead of one floor, there were four!!!

The ground floor plan, let's see if it will have anything to do with the end result!

But we found emails as boring method of communication, so we met on Lahti fair last year and agreed on the details: Brian would build according to my plans, and I will send him the lamps I have craved from Dolls house Emporium for ages.

Half a year later we meet in Stockholm Miniature fair, and agreed we both been very lazy.... The same thing at Christmas fair in Helsinki...

Then came the local miniature magazine, and I read from it that Brian has invented a perfect cover story for laziness: He claims to be too old, and he is only 75! It is a pity that I have a few decades to wait for that excuse...But many happy years to you, Brian, on your new (or should I say old?) career with the model boats!

So we agreed that I can buy only the front and build the department store myself.
So now I have only two (?) questions:

Does this count as a new dolls' house or is it an already going-on project? At least I have to add another house to the left hand side of this page...

Which one you prefers as a name for a department store that will hold every collected item that does not fit to any other house: will it be Elina's Emporium or Kalli's Gallery? So please answer to the poll on the right hand side of the page...

Friday, 8 June 2012

I woke up this morning 3.28 am to a text message and was miserable for couple of hours: No, it was nothing bad on the message, quite contrary as my daughter reported safe landing as she is first time ever abroad on her own. The misery was just what I call nightly thoughts: of things that should have been done and that I should start doing them immediately but too tired etc. Anyway three hours of worrying for everything.

6.30, after my husband had left to the airport, I sat on my desk and started working on the roof of Hôtel Jadis. The effect was immediate: this is what life should be!!!

And now it has turned to the happiness as the roofs are ready. I admit I cut the corners somewhat, but I'm still quite pleased with it. The colour is brighter than I thought but it has already settled somewhat from the photos as the paint is getting dry.

And now Spotify is even playing a very appropriate song : "Friday I'm in love" (with my dolls' house, why the Cure doesn't mention it on the song?)

PS. as you can see from the background, the desk is getting more messy, day by day...

Monday, 4 June 2012

Yes, you guessed right: we had guests on Saturday and the table was needed for serving the dinner. Luckily there are still things that are more important than doll's houses (but they are very few, aren't they?).

As it was so clean, we got a visitor to Hôtel Jadis as well. She just happens to be four times bigger than the inhabitants...

I guess she is a very good example of procrastination: I was supposed to sand the exterior of Hôtel Jadis, but instead I sewed her a t-shirt. I guess she could have waited it for a while as I bought her from Taru Astikainen one and half years ago.

T-shirt is made of light weight jersey, so she can undress it if she wants. Unfortunately she is still waiting for a pair of jeans, so I have an excuse to postpone the sanding work also tomorrow...

House of Mäki-Kalli

Finnish country house from 1910's. This is where it all started in year 2003. Scale: 1:12.

If we had no kids?

Modern house with a couple living yuppie life. Moist damages fixed, but currently a plaything for the kids. Scale 1:18.

Villa Peacock

Victorian house in England updated to year 2030 when my daughter will live there as a famous opera singer. Photo courtesy to Greenleaf from which you can guess that I haven't started the building. Scale 1:24.

Hôtel Jadis

Parisian noble house from 1960's even though the interior dates from better days. I will publish a book about the building process in autumn 2012. Scale: 1:48.

Doll's house Association Jubilee house #29

A detached house designed for the homecoming soldiers in 1940's. No, not started. Safely on the upper shelv. Scale : 1:18.